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Finishing and After the Modification...
This page is where I finish the mod to
my pipes. Finishing means prepping for paint,
painting, cleaning up, cleaning chrome, and putting back
on the end caps.
Finishing up and
cleaning up is always the best part. It means that
you are almost done and can start actually riding again!
First you need to make sure that you have no fans
blowing and no wind going at all or the paint mist might
hit another part of your bike. I did the painting
in my garage with the door closed. I did open it
right up after I finished to let the fumes out.
The painting only took about 10 minutes which included
prepping and painting. The actual painting only
took about 2 minutes. First, you get some good
sturdy plastic. I used big heavy yellow trash
bags. I left them folded for the most part and
tore sections of it to cover my rear fender. I
also had a left over drawer bottom that I used.
Tape off the ENTIRE chrome section of your pipe.
Using the masking tape, attach it partly to the baffle
and partly to the plastic. Wrap the plastic and
tape around the baffle and cover the whole chrome part
of your pipe. Then what I did is took the drawer
cover and protected the tire while doing the pipes.
Plus, I used it during painting of the bottom pipe to
further protect the top pipe and to make sure the paint
mist didn't come out and get my bags. You can take
off your bags if you want, but I didn't want to so I
just covered them. Sorry I didn't get any pictures
of the prepping work since I was in a hurry and wanted
to get it done so I could get back on the road riding.
I'm sure that you know how to properly cover everything
though.
Above: This is
the baffle of my top pipe after painting. You can
see the two 1/2 inch holes at the top and middle and the
7/16 hole on the bottom. This gives me what I
think is a pretty good sound.
Above: This is
the ear of my top pipe after painting. As you can
see, I was able to get the sanding down pretty good
here. For the holes, I used a round metal file and
got as much of it as I could.
Above: This is
the baffle on my bottom pipe after painting. Here
I have the 1/2 in holes at the top and bottom and the
7/16 inch hole in the middle. This isn't due to
sound difference or anything, I is due to how close
together I put the top and middle hole. But, the
sound is still good to me.
Above: This is
the ear of my bottom pipe after painting. Also, I
apparently didn't use as much paint as on the top pipe
which is why it looks duller. Or I was farther
away or something. I'm not sure what I did
differently, but it looked decent enough, it's the
bottom pipe anyway, so I left it. Also, you can
see where I wasn't able to get much in the holes with
the round file, but got it as smooth as I could.
Again, it's the bottom pipe, so I wasn't worried.
Above: Here are
both of my pipes after painting. You can
definitely tell the difference in painting process from
the top to the bottom. I really don't know what I
did differently, but it works and it's covered.
Above: Another
finished picture. Holes are drilled, sanding
completed, painting done. Time to put the end caps
back on, make sure the bolts are tightened, and head out
for riding!
THE END
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